The Creeping Compromise of Music
and its Subtle Effects by the Late Joe Crews
Click to go to our Home PageMUSIC AND
MOODS No study
of Christian standards would be complete without considering the influence of
music. Multiplied millions of young people all over the world have been
brought under the hypnotizing spell of rock-and-roll. Like a common
denominator, it has crossed the boundaries of language, culture, and religion
to affect more lives than almost any other social force. Even the Christian
church has been invaded by so-called "gospel rock" which has become
the evangelistic vehicle of church young people in communicating with other
youth. But what message is being communicated by the tempo and rhythm of this
"now" music? How can we explain the obsessive devotion of so many millions
to the same kinds of sounds? Very few
people understand the tremendous power that music exercises over the
conscious and the subconscious nature of those who listen to it. It has long
been known that martial music, band music, and religious music could produce
predictable emotional responses. Moods of listeners have been programmed by
certain kinds of music. Vast segments of people have reacted in almost
uniform togetherness to the same controlled music. They have been
tranquillized into nostalgia or lethargy by soothing melodies, or they have
been agitated to actual violence by appropriate "wild" syncopated
rhythms. How does
music produce moods? It has now been established scientifically that moods
have a biological basis. They are produced by a combination of brain
activity, blood circulation, and body chemistry. All these functions are
affected in an extraordinary degree by music. Medical research has revealed
that nerves of the ear have more extensive connections than any other nerves
of the body. In fact, there is hardly a function of the human system which
cannot be affected by musical tones. Actual tests have proved that music has
a direct influence on pulse rate, blood pressure, the nervous system,
digestion, muscles, and glands of the body. Dr. Schoen
makes this remarkable statement in his book, The Psychology of Music: "Music
is made of the stuff which is in and of itself the most powerful stimulant
known among the perceptual processes .... Music operates on our emotional
faculty with greater intensiveness and rapidity than the product of any other
act." Page 39. The most
amazing fact of all is how the physical organs react to music. Since the body
only functions when the brain commands it to, we know that music, in some
way, has to reach the brain first of all. But what part of the brain
perceives the music? One of the most important discoveries ever made in this
area has established that music is "heard" in that portion of the
brain which receives the stimuli of emotions, sensations, and feelings. In
fact, music completely bypasses the brain centers involving reason and
intelligence. It does not depend upon the master brain to gain entrance into
the body. It enters by way of the thalamus, which is a relay station of all
emotions, sensations, and feelings. Schullian
and Schoen describe it thus: "Once a stimulus has been able to reach the
thalamus, the master brain is automatically invaded, and if the
stimulus is continued for some time, a closer contact between the master
brain and the world of reality can be thus established." Music and Medicine, pp. 270, 271. (Emphasis
supplied.) Notice
that the music has to be "continued for some time" to produce
physical reactions through the conscious, master brain. The repetitive,
percussive amplification of sound through the electric instruments of
rock-and-roll produces a phenomenon which is better described than
understood. Time magazine describes it in these words: "The
hypnotic beat works a strange kind of magic. Many dancers become oblivious to
those around them. They drift away from their partners. Inhibitions flake away, eyes glaze over, until
suddenly they are seemingly swimming along in a sea of sound." The most
frightening thing about this whole subject is the irresistible assault of the
music upon the emotions and then upon the actions. Since the attack is made
through the thalamus, the individual who listens will be affected by the
music without even making any conscious decision in the matter. This is why
doctors have grasped music as a new way to reach the minds of the retarded
and the mentally ill. It has opened the door for music to be used
therapeutically to communicate with emotionally disturbed patients. Even
autistic children are being remarkably stimulated to respond because they do
not have to make any kind of voluntary decision-the music reaches the brain
centre just by being perceived as sound, through the thalamus. Words may mean
nothing to the children, but the sensory level is pried open by the music,
providing access to the conscious brain. Now this fascinating fact
about music, though beneficial in reaching the mentally disturbed, has also
provided a way for Satan to make a sneak attack upon almost anyone who will
listen to the wrong kind of music. Without his even realizing it, the
listener's mind will be bent to whatever emotional attitude the devil wants
to incorporate into the musical beat. Van deWall sums it up in this manner, "Much of
what we call irresistible in music is so because we react on this
sensory-motor level of functioning." Music in Hospitals, p. 15. Later in
his book Van deWall
describes how the nerves transmit the music message to the various parts of
the body: "Sound vibrations acting upon and through the nervous system
give shocks in rhythmical sequence to the muscles, which cause them to
contract and set our arms and hands, legs and feet in motion. On account of
their automatic muscular reaction, many people make some movement when
hearing music; for them to remain motionless would require conscious muscular
restraint." Page 106. With this
summary of the subtle psychological effect of music on the brain and the
body, we are better able to understand how the rhythm and beat of modem rock
music has created so much moral havoc among the young. The incessant themes
of illicit sex, drugs, and rebellion have been dinned into the brain,
creating an emotional attitude of acceptance toward these aberrations of
conduct. By
operating through the thalamus, Satan bypasses the mental and spiritual
barricades of intelligent reason, and enters the citadel of the mind--the
great control centre of all human decisions and action. There, in the mind,
Satan has the equipment to translate sensual musical impressions into
physical action. Through the telegraphic network of nerves reaching every
part of the body, he can communicate the appropriate commands to act in
accordance with the emotional stimuli of the music. It has
been no secret that some of the most popular rock-and-roll musicians are not
only tied in with drugs but also with spiritualism. Bob Larson has documented
the confession of some such performers that their success has been guaranteed
by a covenant with Satan. This means that Satan is controlling the production
of the music as well as the manner of its communicating with the listener. No
great wonder then, that many rock-and-roll concerts have turned into orgies
of obscenity, where both performers and listeners are virtually emotional
pawns of satanic control. Many have
defended rhythmic music on the basis that it correlates with the natural body
rhythms in producing more co-ordinated activity and accomplishment. It is
certainly true that specially selected music increases the working capacity
of the muscles. In his article, U.S.S.R.: Music and Medicine, Leonid Melnikov enlarges on this
remarkable fact. "At the same time the tempo of the movements of the
worker changes with the change of musical tempo. It is as if the music
determines a good rapid rhythm of movement. Another series of experiments on
students proved that not only the working capacity changes under the
influence of music, but also the pulse and blood pressure." Music
Journal XXVll: 18
(Nov., 1970). Does this
bodily response to specifically programmed musical selections mean that all
rhythmic musical tones are beneficial to the body? On the contrary, although
man has an inherent affinity for certain rhythms, there are some
broken-meter, harmonic dissonances in the melodic line which are completely
out of harmony with natural body rhythms. Such is the typical, insistent
tempo of rock-and-roll music. Alice English Monsarrat in an article entitled Music--Soothing,
Sedative or Savage, wrote, "A broken meter in the treble, played
over an insistently regular beat in the left hand with gradually increasing
rapidity almost to the point of frenzy ... is capable of producing the
identical disintegrating and almost hysterical effect on an organism; as if a
person would try to rush madly in two directions at the same time. Any
psychiatrist knows that it is precisely this two-directional pull of
conflicting drives of emotions that is helping to fill our mental hospitals
with broken wrecks of humanity." What Ms. Monsarrat is really saying is
that to maintain a sense of well-being and integration, people must not be
subjected too much to rhythms not in accord with one's natural body rhythms.
If the truth were fully known, a vast proportion of the present teen-age
restless rebellion might be traced to this constant exposure to incompatible
rhythms. The
strategy of exploiting the sensual appetites is not a new approach for Satan.
He has experimented with teenage emotions for almost 6,000 years and is well
acquainted with their vulnerability. He has been delighted to manipulate the
lives of unconverted young people through rock music, but he is even more
delighted when he can intrude his mind-bending, hypnotic music into the
church. By his age-old program of gradualism, he has managed to break down
the fine sense of discrimination and to reproduce the same erotic musical
beat in some Seventh-day Adventist churches. What a triumph for the devil
when he manages to compromise the high standards of the last-day church! Any
mingling of spiritual and carnal brings a reproach upon the people who are
chosen to proclaim God's last warning message. The only
correct attitude for those who are called out of Babylon and the world is to
close every door to the deceptive musical snares of our great spiritual
enemy. There can be no compromise with the degrading music forms which have
been Satan's tools of corrupting and destroying. We are reminded of Christ's
words, "For that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in
the sight of God." Luke 16:15. In the light of this statement we should
be even more guarded against music which has become so intensely popular with
the world. Only a deep heart experience of love for Christ will empower our
young people to take an unreserved stand against this "highly esteemed"
deceptive instrument of Satan. |